Home appliance



L. G. BECKETT ETAL HOME APPLIANCE Feb. 27, 1962 Filed Aug. 11, 1959 2 SheetsSheet 1 INVENTORSI LEO G. BECKETT JOHN T. WOODS ATT 'YS Feb. 27, 1962 L. e. BECKETT ETAL 3,022,550

HOME APPLIANCE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. ll, 1959 FIG. 5

INVENTORSI LEO G. BECKETT JOHN T. WOODS BY United States Patent 3,022,550 HOME APPLIANCE Leo G. Beckett, Henderson, Ky., and John T. Woods, Evansville, Ind., assignors to Whirlpool Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 11, 1959, Ser. No. 832,988 3 Claims. (Cl. 20-69) This invention relates to a sealing gasket structure.

In sealing the space between a closure such as a door and a frame surrounding an opening such as the door opening in a refrigerator, it is customary to provide a resilient and compressible sealing gasket. It is difiicult to seal the space at the hinge side of the door because the hinge side has a path of travel when the door is moved from open to closed position such that the gasket or other sealing strip tends to be wiped or pulled across the cabinet surface. Thus the gasket on this hinge side first contacts the frame member around the cabinet opening as the door approaches closed position and then as closing is completed tends to be pulled slightly across this frame surface during compression of the gasket. The sealing gasket structure of this invention is constructed so as to avoid this wiping action and to provide a tight seal between the closed door at the hinge side and the frame surrounding the cabinet opening.

One of the features of this invention is to provide a sealing gasket structure for an apparatus including a frame member and a door member hingedly attached thereto at an edge portion of the frame member and an edge portion of the door member in which the sealing gasket structure comprises a resilient, yielding sealing member, collapsible means on which the sealing member is mounted, and a base section for mounting the collapsible means on one of said edge portions with the sealing member extending toward the other edge portion, said collapsible means whenunrestrained normally urging the sealing member at an acute angle to said one edge portion away from said one edge portion and toward said other edge portion when the door is open.

Another feature of the invention is to provide such a sealing gasket structure comprising a sealing member including a flexible, elongated housing and a resilient filler strip filling the interior of said housing, an elongated collapsible bellows on which the sealing member is mounted, and a base section mounting the bellows on one of said edge portions with the sealing member extending toward the other edge portion, the base section including a mounting portion attachable to said one edge portion and an overlying cover portion normally extending over the mounting portion with the bellows attached to the cover portion, the bellows normally urging the sealing member at an acute angle to said one edge portion away from said one edge portion and toward said other edge portion when the door is open and forming a barrier seal in the space between the sealing member and base section, the resilient filler strip distorting an outer side of said housing outwardly in a direction away from said bellows when the door is open.

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of one embodiment thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Of the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary, elevational view of a refrigerator cabinet omitting interior details but including a door hinged to the cabinet arranged in open position and having attached thereto a gasket structure embodying the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary enlarged view of the gasket of FIGURE 1 but separate from the door.

FIGURE 3 is a sectional, elevational view taken sub- "ice stantially along line 3-3 of FIGURE 2 except that the resilient filler within the gasket structure is omitted.

FIGURE 4 is a sectional, elevational view similar to FIGURE 3 but with the resilient filler strip in position in the gasket structure.

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary, sectional view taken through the adjacent portions of a refrigerator cabinet and door showing the sealing gasket structure in position to seal the space therebetween.

The refrigerator cabinet 10 of FIGURE 1 includes a frame member 11 having a door 12 hingedly attached along one edge to the frame member 11 asby a plurality of hinges 13 of which only one is shown in FIGURE 1. Extending around the edge portion 14 of the door 12 is a gasket 15. This gasket has a side portion 16 on the hinge side of the door that embodies the invention. The gasket portions 17, 18 and 19 on the top, handle side and bottom respectively of the gasket may be of any type desired. However, a preferred gasket structure is a magnetic gasket as shown and described in W. R. Bower, A. I. Koch and I. T. Woods copending application Serial No. 834,000, filed August 17, 1959, and now Patent No. 2,958,912, patented November 8, 1960, and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention.

The gasket structure at the side portion 16 includes a flexible, elongated housing 20 of rectangular cross section when undistorted, as illustrated in FIGURE 3, and including an inwardly directed rib 21 on the inner surface of one side of this housing. The housing 20 contains a resilient filler strip 22 preferably of sponge rubber or rubberlike material whose resiliency urges the top 23 of the housing 20 outwardly as illustrated in FIGURE 4.

The housing 20 is mounted on the gasket portion 16 by means of a collapsible bellows 24. This bellows when the gasket structure is at rest has one leg 25 that is adjacent the outer edge of the door 12 relatively short and an opposite leg 26 that is relatively long. These legs 25 and 26 are joined to a base section 27 of a gasket. The longer bellows leg 26 when unrestrained is of generally outwardly extending elbow shape with the angle 28 being adjacent the base section 27. The bellows 24 normally urges the sealing member which is made up of a combination of filler strip 22 and housing 20 at an acute angle to the base section 27 and thus to the edge portion 14 of the door. This acute angle is such that the sealing member 29 extends toward the edge portion 30 of the frame 11 that is adjacent the hinges 13. With this construction the top 23 of the sealing member 29 first contacts the edge portion 30 of the cabinet frame when the door is being closed and further movement of the door toward closed position causes the sealing member 29 to pivot around the leg 25 while the leg 26 is being compressed or folded upon itself to the position shown in FIGURE 5. When the door is completely closed, the top section23 of the sealing member is compressed to provide a tight seal. The relatively large volume of filler strip 22 used in the sealing member to cause the outward bulging of the top section 23 as shown in FIG- URE 4 provides suflicient material so as to maintain a tight seal at all times when the door is closed and to prevent the gasket structure from taking a permanent set that would break this seal. The provision of the small internal rib 21 prevents the firm sponge rubber filler strip from shifting its position or rotating relative to the shell or housing 20.

The interior 31 of the bellows 24 is vented to atmosphere through small openings (not shown) leading from the interior 31 to the atmosphere. By providing the extra resiliency in the sealing member as is shown by the compressed position of the top section 23 of the sealing member when the door is closed the sealing member readily adapts itself to irregularities in the configuration of the cabinet frame edge portion 30. The base section 27 of the gasket structure is made up of a mounting portion 32 of generally U-shape to provide an interior channel 33 and an overlying cover portion 34. The mounting portion 32 is located at one edge of the cover portion 34 and is provided on its bottom with a downwardly and outwardly tapered flange 35 and a downwardly extending 'hollow' elongated bead 36 spaced inwardly of the flange 35'. The flange 35 and bead 36 provide a seal'between the gasket structure and the edge portion 14 of the door.

The gasket vstructure is] held in position by means of I an elongated clamp 37 having a hook'end 38 that extends over an upwardly extending inner rib 39 forming the V inner side of the U-shaped portion 36 and down into the channel 33.: The clamp 37 'is held in position by means of a plurality of screws 40. r The cover portion 34 serves 'to conceal the clamp 37 and the screws 40. V Having described our invention as'related to the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings, it'is our intention that the invention be not limited by-any of 1 In an apparatus including a frame member and a I door member hingedly attached thereto at an edge porftion offtheframe member and an edge portion of the mdoor member, a sealing gasket structure, comprising: a l resilient, yielding sealing member; a collapsible bellows means on which, the sealing member is mounted; and a ;,}b'ase.section; for mounting the' collapsible means on one Qfof said edge portions with the'sealing member'exten'ding lt'oward the other: edge portiongIsaid j collapsible means yyhen unrestrained normally urging 'lthjseaiing" mernoer at an acute angle to said one edge portion away'from said one edge portion and toward said other edgeportion when the door is open, one leg of said angle being sub- 4 a r it stantially parallel to said one edge portion and the other leg of said angle extending toward said other edge portion when said door is approaching closed position.

2. The gasket structure of claim 1 wherein said sealing member includes a fiexible-,--elongated housing in which is positioned a resilient filler strip distorting an outer side of said housing outwardly in a direction away from saidcollapsible means 3. in an apparatus including a frame member and a door member hingedly attached thereto at an edge portion of the frame member and an edge portion of the "door member,-a sealinggasket structure, comprising: a

' sealing member including a flexible, elongated housing anda resilient filler: strip filling the interior of said housing; an elongated collapsible bellowsonwhichthesealing member is mounted; and abase section' mounting the bellows on sneer said edge portions with thefsealing 'member extending toward the other :edge-portiomxthe base section including a' mounting portion attachable: to

said one edge portionpand an overlying 'cover' portion normally extending over the mounting portion withthe bellows attached to the cover portion,"the bellowsnormally urging the sealing member at an acuteangle to said oneedge portionawayfrom said one edge'portion and toward said other edge portion whenithe' door is open and forming a barrier seat in the space between the sealing member and base section, one leg'rof said angle being substantially parallel to said one edge portion and the other leg of said angle'extending toward said other edge portion when-said door-is-approaching 2,659,l 14 p 2,659,418 Anderson -ct-al.-- 'Nov. l7f 1953 2,807,841 Janos ..,Oct. 1, 1957 40 2,958,912 Bower et al Nov. 8, 1960 

